Wednesday, July 29, 2009

LESSONS FROM CAMELOT

I love stories about King Arthur and Camelot. In fact, I'm re-reading Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle right now. Since I was a boy—as I think is true of many boys—the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table captured my imagination.

Today, as I see the adventures through the eyes of age and experience, I see the stories with new understanding. The epic battles are still engaging, but the parallels to mankind's modern dilemmas are ever-present. We think we have "evolved," but even after 1,500 years, we share much in common with the characters of Camelot.

From the book Noble Plans:
It seems that in every generation, a new voice arises to this sense of nobility, or at least the desire to experience it. In the 1960’s, we had the Kennedy Whitehouse. Though I was a young boy at the time, the country seemed alive with a new sense of vigor and hope placed in the new “Camelot.” Yet as the years have gone by, all that glimmered was not gold. Decades later, the Kennedy administration is often remembered more for scandal and philandering than the noble ideals of Arthur’s Round Table. However, the dream of the Kennedy Camelot lives on unabated, revisited briefly in the 1990s during the Clinton Administration and hinted at again in the current Obama White House.
Camelot is ingrained into our cultural consciousness. Her ideals are indefatigable. We all yearn for the Kingdom of Summer where right trumps might. But for too many, they are only ideals, a glimmering wish for our troubled times.

British Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher once said, “Unless we change our ways and our direction, our greatness as a nation will soon be a footnote in the history books, a distant memory of an offshore island, lost in the mists of time like Camelot, remembered kindly for its noble past.”

The Bible is far more succinct: "Pride goeth before the fall" (Pr 16:18). When might supersedes right, when justice is redefined to fit the situation rather than the rule of law, when morals are defined by politicians rather than the Supreme Authority, then we all risk being that "footnote in the history books."

The Bible points to a realm greater than Arthur's, a majesty far beyond Camelot: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" (Mt 6:33). Evil found Camelot arrogant, and wrought ruin upon Arthur and the Golden City. Mankind has yearned for it ever since. But the Round Table was only a symbol, a shadow whose reality is cast by Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven, our true home and the answer to that deep yearning.
Behold, a king will reign righteously, And princes will rule justly.
And each will be like a refuge from the wind, And a shelter from the storm, Like streams of water in a dry country, Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.
Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded, And the ears of those who hear will listen.
And the mind of the hasty will discern the truth, And the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.
No longer will the fool be called noble, Or the rogue be spoken of as generous.
For a fool speaks nonsense, And his heart inclines toward wickedness, To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD, To keep the hungry person unsatisfied And to withhold drink from the thirsty.
As for a rogue, his weapons are evil; He devises wicked schemes To destroy the afflicted with slander, Even though the needy one speaks what is right.
But the noble man devises noble plans; And by noble plans he stands (Isaiah 32:1-8).


"A noble man devises noble plans; and by noble plans he stands" (Isaiah 32:8)

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

LOYALTY & NOBLE PLANS

From Noble Plans

Back in the day it was called “fealty,” a French word from the Latin fidelitas, where we also get our word “fidelity.” Unless you’re reading a medieval treatise or novel though, you don’t encounter “fealty” very often. Today’s close approximation is “loyalty.”

Again, back in the day, everyone, from peasant to lord owed fealty—loyalty—to the king. At times this was assumed, as from a peasant to his noble. At others, it was a service performed by nobles to their monarch (sometimes a new king), when oaths of loyalty were sworn and enforced. To break a vow of loyalty could mean death.

Today, unless you’re talking about your dog, loyalty is not given much thought. Employees and employers are often only interested in loyalty as far as the law requires them to be loyal. Brand loyalty, a much sought-after trait by marketers of yesteryear, is passé as everyone hops from one deal to the next best deal. For some, even friendships and marriages deserve loyalty, but only as long as the relationship meets their perceived needs and keeps them “happy.”

For the Christian, loyalty can be a lonely business. Sticking to your convictions can cost friends and even family members. It can cost you your business, your happiness. In short: loyalty costs.

Oswald Chambers, I think, helps put it all into perspective: “Christian service is not our work; loyalty to Jesus is our work.” You can have all the noble plans in the world, but if your loyalty is misplaced, focused more on the plan than on the Person, then your noble plans have forgotten the key component. Even God tells us, “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice,” (Hosea 6:6).

As you pursue life and your noble plans, it is good to keep in mind that “He who pursues righteousness and loyalty finds life, righteousness, and honor” (Pr 21:21).

How loyal are you?


"A noble man devises noble plans; and by noble plans he stands" – Isaiah 32:8

Saturday, July 4, 2009

THE YEARNING


“The yearning for regal bearing is there, deep within our hungry souls, but the actualization, the manifestation of that truth is often resigned to children’s fairy tales, myth, and surrendered to the realm of legend”—from the upcoming book, Noble Plans.

When I share my heart behind Noble Plans there are generally one of two responses. There are those who immediately grasp the concept because it has been playing in the back of their minds for years. They latch onto the virtues of noble living as if they had needed permission.

Then there are those who glance at me askance as if to say, “Yea, right. You go on telling yourself that, but life doesn’t work that way.” They are the ones who somewhere deep inside yearn to make noble plans, but have relegated their regal calling to the realm of fairy tales and legend.

I cannot blame the second group. Most of them have be taught, either by those in authority or by life’s hard knocks, that regal living is myth. Their skepticism has its reasons. Sadly however, it denies the words of Scripture:
  • “You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings” (1 Corinthians 4:8).
  • “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness . . .” (Matthew 6:33).
  • “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble” (1 Corinthians 1:26).
  • “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory” (1Samuel 2:8).

The Bible holds many, many more such examples.

If you are eager to embrace a noble life, then do so. If there is a yearning burning inside you to live as a princess or prince of the Great High King, then wait for no one — embody those principles!

If on the other hand, you think the ideal is fine, but the actualization too far a stretch, then reexamine the Scriptures. Has God called you spiritually to live as a prince or as a pauper?


"A noble man devises noble plans; and by noble plans he stands"